| History of Lithuania |
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| Chronology |
 Lithuaniaportal |
The Centennial of the Restored State of Lithuania marks the 100th anniversary of the Act of Independence of Lithuania which was signed on 16 February 1918.
| History of Lithuania |
|---|
| |
| Chronology |
| Lithuaniaportal |
The Centennial of the Restored State of Lithuania marks the 100th anniversary of the Act of Independence of Lithuania which was signed on 16 February 1918.
Lithuania's statehood dates to the 13th-century Grand Duchy of Lithuania. On 6 July 1253, Mindaugas was crowned as the King of Lithuania. In 1385, Lithuania joined Poland in a union that grew into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1569. Between 1772 and 1795, most of Lithuania was annexed by the Russian Empire.
Towards the end of World War I, on 16 February 1918, twenty people signed the Act of Independence of Lithuania, which proclaimed the restoration of an Independent State of Lithuania, creating a modern state. During World War II, Lithuania was forcibly occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, followed by Nazi Germany in 1941, and again by the Soviets in 1944 as one of its constituent republics. During the late 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Lithuania fought to restore its independence which culminated in the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania signed on 11 March 1990. [1]
In order to have every Lithuanian citizen experience the significance of this jubilee, the Government of Lithuania has initiated a celebration of the centenary of the restoration of Lithuania. The intention of the celebration is to:
"Bring... together Lithuanian people and Lithuanians living abroad to celebrate the birthday of restored Lithuania, encouraging to be proud of their country, and becoming important and active participants in Lithuania’s life. [2]
To achieve this, the government has been planning to increase Lithuania's reputation abroad. [3] February 16 has been pronounced as the most important jubilee date, but the Centennial is intended to last all year.
The National Flag and Vytis have been chosen as symbols of the celebration of the centenary.
Three main focuses of activity have been identified by the government:
6 July 2017, the Statehood Day, marked the official start of the Centennial. On that day, the national anthem was sung at the same time at 100 Lithuania's hillforts and around the world. The main events of the celebration of the centennial are scheduled for 2018. The most important of them will be the commemoration of the 16 February. The largest event will be the 20th Song Festival "Vardan tos ...," to be held in Vilnius on 30 June – 6 July 2018. The name of the festival comes from Tautiška giesmė , the Lithuanian anthem.
A lot of attention will be given to the presentation of Lithuania and its cultural and scientific achievements abroad. [5] Many smaller initiatives have been already or will be implemented in the near future. The Lithuanian Council for Culture alone has received fifty applications for “The Centennial of the State of Lithuania” program. [6] Hundreds of initiatives have been supported by other cultural and scientific programs and foundations. [7] In 2018, tens of scientific conferences, exhibitions, symposiums, educational programs, concerts, and performances will take place. [8] [9]
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Lithuania or simply Lithuania, was de facto one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1940–1941 and 1944–1990. After 1946, its territory and borders mirrored those of today's Republic of Lithuania, with the exception of minor adjustments of the border with Belarus.
The national flag of Lithuania consists of a horizontal tricolour of yellow, green, and red. It was adopted on 25 April 1918 during Lithuania's first period of independence from 1918 to 1940, which ceased with the occupation first by the Soviet Union, and then by Nazi Germany (1941–1944). During the post-World War II Soviet occupation, from 1945 until 1989, the Soviet Lithuanian flag consisted first of a generic red Soviet flag with the name of the republic, then changed to the red flag with white and green bands at the bottom.
"Tautiška giesmė" is the national anthem of Lithuania, also known by its opening words, "Lietuva, Tėvyne mūsų", and as "Lietuvos himnas". The music and lyrics were written in 1898 by Vincas Kudirka, when Lithuania was still part of the Russian Empire. The fifty-word poem was a condensation of Kudirka's conceptions of the Lithuanian state, the Lithuanian people, and their past. Shortly before his death in 1899, the anthem was performed for Lithuanians living in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, also referred to as Šauliai, is a paramilitary non-profit organisation supported by the Government of Lithuania. Their activities are in three main areas: military training, sport, and culture.
The June Uprising was a brief period in the history of Lithuania between the first Soviet occupation and the Nazi occupation in late June 1941. Approximately one year earlier, on June 15, 1940, the Red Army occupied Lithuania and the unpopular Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was soon established. Political repression and terror were used to silence its critics and suppress any resistance. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, a diverse segment of the Lithuanian population rose up against the Soviet regime, declared renewed independence, and formed the short-lived Provisional Government. Two large Lithuanian cities, Kaunas and Vilnius, fell into the hands of the insurgents before the arrival of the Wehrmacht. Within a week, the German Army took control of the whole of Lithuania. The Lithuanians greeted the Germans as liberators from the repressive Soviet rule and hoped that the Germans would re-establish their independence or at least allow some degree of autonomy. No such support came from the Nazis, who steadily replaced Lithuanian institutions with their own administration. The Reichskommissariat Ostland was established at the end of July 1941. Deprived of any real power, the Provisional Government disbanded itself on August 5.
The emblem of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted in 1940 by the government of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. The emblem was designed by Vsevolodas Dobužinskis based on the State Emblem of the Soviet Union. The new coat of arms replaced the traditional coat of arms of Lithuania, known as Vytis, which was restored when Lithuania declared its independence in 1990.
The State Border Guard Service or VSAT is a border control institution under the Ministry of the Interior charged with controlling and maintaining the security of the Lithuanian borders on land, in the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon. VSAT is a member of the EU Frontex and is responsible for the security of about 1,070 kilometres (660 mi) of the external border of the European Union with Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus.
The first known record of the name of Lithuania is in a 9 March 1009 story of Saint Bruno recorded in the Quedlinburg Chronicle. The Chronicle recorded a Latinized form of the Old Church Slavonic word for Lithuania — Литъва — Latinized as Litva. Although it is clear the name originated from a Baltic language, scholars still debate the meaning of the word.
The Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania or Act of March 11 was an independence declaration by Lithuania adopted on March 11, 1990, signed by all members of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania led by Sąjūdis. The act emphasized restoration and legal continuity of the interwar-period Lithuania, which was occupied by the Soviet Union and annexed in June 1940. In March, 1990, it was the first of the 15 Soviet republics to declare independence, with the rest following suit over the ensuing twenty-one months. These events led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.
The Act of Independence of Lithuania or the Act of February 16, also the Lithuanian Resolution on Independence, was signed by the Council of Lithuania on February 16, 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania, governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital. The Act was signed by all twenty representatives of the Council, which was chaired by Jonas Basanavičius. The Act of February 16 was the result of a series of resolutions on the issue, including one issued by the Vilnius Conference and the Act of January 8. The path to the Act was long and complex because the German Empire exerted pressure on the Council to form an alliance. The Council had to carefully maneuver between the Germans, whose troops were present in Lithuania, and the demands of the Lithuanian people.
Lietuvos aidas is a daily newspaper in Lithuania. It was established on September 6, 1917, by Antanas Smetona, and became the semi-official voice of the newly formed Lithuanian government. When the government evacuated from Vilnius to the temporary capital, Kaunas, it ceased publication. The newspaper was revived in 1928 as the newspaper of the Lithuanian government and became the most popular newspaper in Lithuania. At its peak, it published three daily editions with combined circulation of 90,000 copies. World War II disrupted its publication. In 1990, after Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union, the newspaper once again became the official newspaper of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania. At the end of 1992, its circulation reached 103,000 copies. However, it was soon privatized and faced shrinking readership, financial difficulties, and other controversies. In April 2006, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated by the State Tax Inspectorate when its tax debts reached more than 4 million litas. The company was liquidated in 2015, but the newspaper continues to be published by a non-profit organization.
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LSSR) was a short-lived Soviet Puppet state during early Interwar period. It was declared on 16 December 1918 by a provisional revolutionary government led by Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas. It ceased to exist on 27 February 1919, when it was merged with the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia to form the Lithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (Litbel). While efforts were made to represent the LSSR as a product of a socialist revolution supported by local residents, it was largely a Moscow-orchestrated entity created to justify the Lithuanian–Soviet War. As a Soviet historian described it as: "The fact that the Government of Soviet Russia recognized a young Soviet Lithuanian Republic unmasked the lie of the USA and British imperialists that Soviet Russia allegedly sought rapacious aims with regard to the Baltic countries." Lithuanians generally did not support Soviet causes and rallied for their own national state, declared independent on 16 February 1918 by the Council of Lithuania.
The Lithuania Song Festival is a massive traditional song and dance festival. Since regaining the Independence in 1990, the event has gained the status of the national celebration. The most recent event took place between 30 June and 6 July 2018. The 2018 edition of the Song Celebration was dedicated to the Centenary of the Restoration of the independent state of Lithuania and took place in Kaunas and Vilnius. The main event has been hosted in Vingis Park in Vilnius.
The Lithuanian Auxiliary Police Battalions were Schutzmannschaft battalions formed during the German occupation of Lithuania between 1941 and 1944, with the first battalions originating from the most reliable freedom fighters that were disbanded following the anti-Soviet Lithuanian June Uprising in 1941. Lithuanian activists hoped that these units would be the basis of the reestablished Lithuanian Army and commanded by the Lithuanian Provisional Government. Instead, these units were placed under the orders of the SS- und Polizeiführer in Lithuania. The battalions were charged with internal security duties and engaged in anti-partisan operations in the Wehrmacht's rear areas, e.g. Ukraine, Belarus, Poland and Northwest Russia.
In Lithuania, the Independence Medal is a state medal of Lithuania, awarded for the contributions in the restoration of the independence of the state. The medal had two issues in 1928 and 2000. Both times it was issued to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Lithuania's independence.
The 100th Anniversary of the Estonian Republic is an official government program for the celebration of the Republic of Estonia's 100th anniversary. The official anniversary was marked on 24 February 2018, while related celebrations and events took place from April 2017 to February 2020.
The 100th Anniversary of the Latvian Republic also commercialized as Latvia 100 is a national event in Latvia celebrating the country's 100th anniversary since its 1918 establishment. The main celebrations were held on 18 November 2018, and other commemorative events are set to take place from 2017 to 2021. Outside from the official celebrations, 18 November is also a public holiday, being the Proclamation Day of the Republic of Latvia.
The day of restoration of Independence of Lithuania is a Lithuanian national holiday celebrated on 11 March in commemoration of the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania that the Constituent Assembly signed in 1990. It is one of the three principal national holidays in Lithuania, along with the Day of the Re-Establishment of the Statehood of Lithuania on 16 February and the Statehood Day on 6 July.
Barbora Burbaitė-Eidukevičienė (1867–1939) was a Lithuanian physician. Graduating from the University of Zurich in 1892, she became the first Lithuanian woman to obtain a university degree.
